Only 2 months and max range shown as 119!

Hi,
My 30kwh leaf was purchased sept 2016 and consistently gave a 132 mile range reading after full overnight charge. Now ever since the dealer carried out an electronics reset last week (to get Nissan connect to function) then the max range shows as 119 miles. Battery cannot have degraded that quickly surely? Do I put this down to the cold weather over night?

Very disappointing as I commute 110 miles daily and need to be home with at least 30 miles 'in the bank' because I can only charge 8 hours a night due to my working patterns.

Any advice?

Ignore the stupid guess-o-meter aka GOM. There are numerous threads on this. Google for site:mynissanleaf.com ignore gom. Also see http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=271853#p271853.

Instead, look at the percentage state of charge screen and better yet, use Leaf Spy, esp. if you want to have more visibility into your battery's condition.

Android:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=14284
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=14285

iOS:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=19147

EPA range rating on the '16 Leaf SV and SL w/30 kWh battery is only 107 miles.

Unfortunately, Tony only added a small snippet of an updated range chart at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293 for 30 kWh Leafs. Since you mention your commute is 110 miles, if you're going to keep the car for awhile, assuming you can't charge at your destinations/work, you're going to have a problem and will need to do either that or charge on the way back, eventually.

Assuming Tony's chart is right about 26.5 kWh usable on a 30 kWh pack, to qualify for capacity warranty replacement (8 years/100K miles for your car), you need to be down 4 capacity bars, which should be ~70% remaining. 26.5 kWh * 0.7 = 18.55 kWh. 110 miles / 18.55 kWh, means you'd need to average 5.93 miles/kWh in order to make it when your battery is very degraded. You'll be hovering around there for awhile before you lose that 4th bar. If you drove a steady 40 mph on level ground w/no HVAC usage, per that chart, you'd probably average 5.9 miles/kWh. So, you'd need to go even slower...

I don't drive around conservatively, but I've never had any extended drives (not counting downhill grades) where I averaged even 5 miles/kWh, let alone 5.9!

It also sounds like you have a 220V 16 amp evse. Another suggestion would be to upgrade to a 30 amp evse for faster charging at night.

What are you charging with that takes over 8 hours?

Battery does shrink a bit in the cold.

Any update? You asked for advice and and state you "commute 110 miles daily" but you're doing this on a car w/a 107 mile EPA range rating on a new battery...

Robplanme said:

Hi,
My 30kwh leaf was purchased sept 2016 and consistently gave a 132 mile range reading after full overnight charge. Now ever since the dealer carried out an electronics reset last week (to get Nissan connect to function) then the max range shows as 119 miles. Battery cannot have degraded that quickly surely? Do I put this down to the cold weather over night?

Very disappointing as I commute 110 miles daily and need to be home with at least 30 miles 'in the bank' because I can only charge 8 hours a night due to my working patterns.

Any advice?

Click to expand...

My LEAF is only 2 weeks old and my issues are double yours! my range has run from 94 to 141... but then again, LEAF Spy hasn't changed much (it actually hasn't changed at all...)

smkettner said:

What are you charging with that takes over 8 hours?

Batter does shrink a bit in the cold.

Click to expand...

can only guess what you mean here since you didn't complete the comment but efficiency "shrinks" in cold weather for "any" car or mass that must fight the elements and air friction.

I meant battery capacity is reduced in the cold. Yes power demand also increases in cold or bad weather.

The real issue is why does it take so long to charge. Don't blame the car and battery if you need higher rated charging equipment.

Hi and thanks for the responses. Much appreciated.

Update: I've paid £15 for LeafSpy pro on iphone6 but unfortunately it appears very fragile on the iPhone and only partially works under test mode or regularly closes down. So I'm going to seek a refund unless someone can help. I'll then get a cheap android tab and download LeafSpy.

Anyhow, I'm enjoying the leaf even more now that I've got over the GOM and instead looking to keep an eye on my speed and tire pressure instead in order to get me to and fro the station 100mile round trip every day.

My problem is that I've just moved into rented property and the landlord is not yet keen for me to invest in a level 2 charger. So I'm level 1 trickle charging and only able to do this between 2000 and 0500hrs because that's when I'm at home during the week.

I can't face stumping up over £1000 plus labour to upgrade my OB charger so I'll make do for now with mid trip stop overs for a fast charge at the service station during the middle of the week.